Organ Transplants Between HIV-Positive Patients May Soon Be Happening

Organ transplants between HIV-positive patients may soon be happening. The HIV Organ Police Equity or HOPE Act has passed through both the House of Representatives and the Senate. President Obama signed it and now it is law. So, now if an individual is already infected with the HIV virus, he or she should be able to receive an organ transplant from another person who also has HIV.

This act has lifted the prevention of research into the transplant of organs between HIV-positive patients. It outlines standards and guides for how the research should be conducted. Now everything is up to the United States Secretary of Health to decide if these results give enough reason to begin allowing such transplant operations. In contrast to the majority of legislation, the HOPE Act is only three pages in length and contains just three parts. It is an amendment to an established regulation and its purpose is only to allow the responsible research of a possibly valuable new health procedure.

The federal health department can now begin to develop and introduce specific standards for conducting this type of research. It also allows the health secretary to permit such transplants if the research results deserve a change. The security of the organ transplant procedure must always be protected.

President Obama stated that he believes the HOPE Act is an important step because it will help increase the medical care given to people who are living with HIV.

Such organ transplants might give HIV-positive individuals a quality of life that they have had before. Also, their lives will not be in danger from getting organs from other people with HIV. In fact, their lives will probably be prolonged because of the organ transplants. It makes perfect sense to begin organ transplants between HIV-positive patients.

Numerous advocacy organizations have noted that people who are HIV-positive are now living longer. The groups also state that the amount of people who are waiting for organs far surpasses the number of organs which are accessible for transplantation.

The HOPE act also creates a bigger pool of available organs for transplants. The law alters part of the Organ Transplant Act of 1988 amendment, which was penned when the AIDS scare was at its highest. It federally banned any individuals who were HIV-positive from becoming organ donors.

Until this act was signed into law, HIV and AIDS were the only disorders that federally excluded a person from becoming an organ donor.

A surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center worked hard on getting the HOPE Act passed. He said this law could possibly end up helping hundreds or possibly even in the thousands of HIV-positive individuals who were in need of organs.

He explained that it was also good news for anyone that was on a transplant list, because the more organs that are available to transplant, even more lives will be saved. It is believed that there are over hundreds of organs which could be used for be HIV-positive individuals who are in need. The more that is learned about this special practice, the more likely that organ transplants between HIV-positive patients will happen.